The Hull Piercer is an Epic Forbidden Tech that turns a battleship into a dedicated armada killer. Its headline effect raises shield piercing, armor piercing, and accuracy against armada targets by up to 1,200%, and it stacks isolytic damage, critical damage, and critical hit chance on top. Everything it does is locked to battleships fighting armadas, so it is a specialist piece rather than a general upgrade. For armada crews, it is one of the strongest slots you can fill.
What the Hull Piercer does
The piece carries four buffs, and all of them apply only when a battleship attacks an armada. The biggest is the combined shield piercing, armor piercing, and accuracy boost, which climbs from 100% at unlock to 1,200% at max tier and level. Piercing lets your shots bypass part of the target’s mitigation, and the accuracy portion keeps those hits from glancing, so the two push far more damage through an armada’s defenses.
| Buff | Unlocks at tier | Unlock value | Max value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battleship isolytic damage vs armadas | 1 | 5% | 20% |
| Battleship shield piercing, armor piercing, and accuracy vs armadas | 3 | 100% | 1,200% |
| Battleship critical damage vs armadas | 6 | 50% | 350% |
| Battleship critical hit chance vs armadas | 8 | 8% | 32% |
The isolytic damage and critical buffs add more base damage per volley and harder, more frequent critical hits. Armada targets carry deep hull and heavy mitigation, so the piercing and accuracy line is what makes the rest of those numbers actually land.
How to get the Hull Piercer
The Hull Piercer unlocks through the Forbidden Tech refinery. You gather Epic Forbidden Fragments, the currency tied to Epic Forbidden Tech, and exchange them there. Fragments come from Q’s Trials and from special rewards. Before you can slot any Forbidden Tech on a ship you also need Forbidden Tech Fusion Rods, which open the Forbidden Tech slots and can pull a piece back out of a ship later. Rods come from the refinery and the store.
Upgrading the Hull Piercer
Two separate tracks raise the piece. Tiers use Forbidden Tech Tier-Up Catalysts and Reactors, and each tier up lifts the level cap and switches on the later buffs, so the critical damage and critical hit buffs only come online once you reach tiers 6 and 8. Levels use Forbidden Tech Protomatter and Reactors, and they scale each active buff toward its maximum. The Hull Piercer goes to tier 12 and level 60.
| Tier | Level cap | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Starting tier, no cost |
| 7 | 35 | 32 Forbidden Tech Reactor, 9,900 Forbidden Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
| 12 | 60 | 32 Forbidden Tech Reactor, 11,500 Forbidden Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
Reaching max tier costs 352 Forbidden Tech Reactor and 161,550 Forbidden Tech Tier-Up Catalyst in total. Leveling from 2 to 60 costs 1,856 Forbidden Tech Reactor and 1,305,350 Forbidden Tech Protomatter. Reactors gate almost every upgrade attempt, so they tend to be the real bottleneck.
Best ships and uses for the Hull Piercer
This is a battleship-and-armada piece and nothing else. Put it on the battleship you run in your armada crew, and pair it with officers and other tech built for the same fight. It does nothing on an explorer or interceptor, and nothing outside armada combat, so do not waste a slot on it elsewhere. If you are still learning the format, the solo armadas guide covers how those battles are structured and which targets reward the effort.
The Hull Piercer in Star Trek
The Hull Piercer is a game-original artifact rather than a device from the shows or films, so it has no screen canon behind it. Its in-game story fills that gap. It comes from a species that lived in a permanent state of war, where every advance in science pointed at one goal, wiping out the enemy. The weapon was built to cut through hulls the way a hot blade cuts through wax, and the grim footnote is that once its makers won their war, they turned it on each other. That backstory fits how it plays, a purpose-built killer with no gentler use.
Is the Hull Piercer worth it?
If you run battleship armadas, yes. The piercing and accuracy line alone changes how much damage you land against high-mitigation targets, and the critical buffs make good crews better. If you rarely touch armadas, or you fly explorers and interceptors more than battleships, spend your Forbidden Fragments elsewhere first. For armada players, take it as high as your Reactor and Catalyst stock allows, since the top tiers are where the critical buffs and the full 1,200% piercing come alive.